Unfunny cartoons
Apr. 17th, 2005 11:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furtechDucks...dogs...horses...penguins.
How many daily strips would still be read if they didn't have a "crutch" animal? These are those strips that-- for no justified reason-- stick in a talking animal to get people to read 'em.
"Prickly City" is the top Weiner in this category: a "political" strip that panders to the political wind-- not funny, not cutting or insightful and poorly drawn. Coyote (more of a cuddly doggy).
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/prickcity.gif
"Mallard Fillmore": Slightly better than "Prickly City" in that it is unabashedly right-wing. Not funny, panders to ditto-heads, not particularly well drawn. Duck.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/MallFill.gif
"Non Sequitor": Often funny without the talking horse, I think this was a sign of desperation or falling readership when he added the horse. Pitiful.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/nonseq.gif
I'm guessing "Peanuts" started this trend (inadvertantly). Snoopy was hugely popular...but the strip would have been funny, clever and *read* without him.
There are plenty of other stips with animals-- Marmaduke and Heathcliff/Garfield, but they're gag driven and/or actually about the animal being that animal.
What strips can you think of? That-- without the animal character they would be completely ignored? Or, better yet-- strips that use animals as characters that you would never give a second glance to if they were human? ( I can think of plenty of "slice of life" strips that would die lonely deaths if they were drawn as people).
How many daily strips would still be read if they didn't have a "crutch" animal? These are those strips that-- for no justified reason-- stick in a talking animal to get people to read 'em.
"Prickly City" is the top Weiner in this category: a "political" strip that panders to the political wind-- not funny, not cutting or insightful and poorly drawn. Coyote (more of a cuddly doggy).
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/prickcity.gif
"Mallard Fillmore": Slightly better than "Prickly City" in that it is unabashedly right-wing. Not funny, panders to ditto-heads, not particularly well drawn. Duck.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/MallFill.gif
"Non Sequitor": Often funny without the talking horse, I think this was a sign of desperation or falling readership when he added the horse. Pitiful.
http://www.akela.com/TEMP/nonseq.gif
I'm guessing "Peanuts" started this trend (inadvertantly). Snoopy was hugely popular...but the strip would have been funny, clever and *read* without him.
There are plenty of other stips with animals-- Marmaduke and Heathcliff/Garfield, but they're gag driven and/or actually about the animal being that animal.
What strips can you think of? That-- without the animal character they would be completely ignored? Or, better yet-- strips that use animals as characters that you would never give a second glance to if they were human? ( I can think of plenty of "slice of life" strips that would die lonely deaths if they were drawn as people).
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no subject
Date: 2005-04-18 09:21 am (UTC)Opus was somewhat acceptable in Bloom County. But when Breathed dropped that strip and started the terrible Outland strip, then brought Opus and Bill the cat in for it, he became a comic strip crutch like no other.
Then, when that failed. He tried to maintain his career by creating a dialy strip called "Opus".
Opus is the biggest animal crutch in the daily strip universe that has ever existed. I remember forming a particularly bad hate for Berkley and for Opous when he did that in the 90s. :)
On the flip side, my two favorite current animal strips that work as animal strips are Pooch Cafe and Get Fuzzy.